TPM Reader RB has his moment!
Finally! A subject I feel like I can comment on.
In my opinion drug use doesn’t break down along party lines so easily.
Ben Smith is reporting that Andy Stern will be stepping down as president of Service Employees International Union.
Signs of a turnaround in Ohio? Like many races around the country, the Ohio senate race turned from the Dems to the Republicans right election election day 2009. But here Dems (both Fisher and Brunner) have been making a comeback against Republican Rob Portman.
(for full size graph click the TPM logo at the lower left of the graph) Read More
Our Justin Elliott learns that the DOJ is considering a lawsuit to force reforms in the New Orleans police department, much as the Justice Department did with the LAPD in the 1990s.
Colbert to Wikileaks editor: “It’s like you’re saying it’s better to know than not to know.” Watch.
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), currently running for senator, says no one is opposed to ending discrimination by insurance companies against kids with pre-existing conditions — but against adults? Tough luck!
Oregonian Jason Levin has got an ingenious plan: his “Crash the Tea Party” effort is going to out-crazy the crazies at tea party events. You say Obama is a foreigner? Levin says he’s an alien. And so on, until even the tea partiers recoil from the association.
TPM Reader VL looks at the intriguing possibilities behind Nevada senate candidate Sue Lowden’s suggestion that we use barter as a way to contain ever-rising medical costs …
I found myself intrigued by the suggestion that we should barter (or even bargain) for our health care. My first thought was of my great grandfather, a country doctor in upstate New York in c. 1880. We still have his account books.
The many farmers in the area did, indeed, pay him by barter. Some of the entries make for good reading. Clearly, a few farmers felt a life long obligation, as they are recorded as dropping off two dozen eggs weekly for years in exchange for a difficult birth. Others, not so much: terse commentary alongside some entries indicates that the doctor did not expect to see anything after this one chicken, despite the complexity of the case.
The Washington Post has new details out on former Rep. Eric Massa’s pattern of hitting on male staffers and others, including the incident that finally led his staff to blow the whistle: Massa allegedly hitting on a bartender at the wake for a Marine killed in Afghanistan.
We now have another Republican (albeit one in the House) saying that the seemingly preposterous claim that Health Care Reform is unconstitutional will be a key issue in the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings.